Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 cranks back to life

Finally resurrected my 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 today. As I walked around the car while it warmed up on tickover, I noticed the road tax had run out in July 2011, so it had been parked up for more than four years. On the upside, it is now tax exempt.

Cranking the Carrera 3.0 back to life was easy enough. I had charged the new Odyssey battery up to full strength over a couple of days, swapped the terminals over from the old battery and then stuck the new one into the car, reconnecting the various positive feeds to who knows what (long time since I did all this stuff). Dropping the negative terminal on and reconnecting the battery disconnect made it ready to go.

Ignition on, fuel pump buzz, key turn, oil pressure light off. Then key off and turn – it started on the second attempt and soon filled the garage with smoke. Trying to drive it outside was an issue, as the clutch had seized on. Not ideal. I knocked it off and tried working the clutch a bit but nothing would free it. Cranking it out on the starter in first, the car started and took off for the bins. Brakes wouldn’t stop it on gravel, so I quickly knocked the key off and avoided a crash into the bins and my big trailer.

I rocked it backwards and forwards a bit in gear, wound it backwards on the starter, wound it forwards again, there was a burst of revs and the clutch was free. Saved me having to do anything brutal with a tow rope! Now the car was ready to turn a wheel, I put Ted in the 911 and took it for a quick spin around the village checking for seized brakes. All seems OK: I will book it for an MOT this week and we’ll see what it needs to pass the test and get back out there. Here’s some video: